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In almost 10 years of the Investigation Committee’s existence, more than 80,000 corruption probes have been referred to the courts, with many high-ranking officials, as well as executives from various authorities, being accused of such offences.

In 2019, 6,468 criminal probes of 11,664 crimes were sent to court for trying on the merits. Among the crimes that were prosecuted in these probes were bribery, various types of fraud, misappropriation and embezzlement.

In these probes, 6,902 defendants were brought to trial. These included 308 persons subject to special criminal proceedings, including 50 lawyers, 120 heads of municipalities, 6 judges and others. Also among the accused were 752 officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, 181 officers of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, 84 officers of the Federal Bailiff Service, 34 officers of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, 51 officers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia, 9 prosecutors and 476 representatives of local authorities.

Sentences have been imposed against many executives and high-ranking officials accused of corruption, including former Head of the Komi Republic, Vyacheslav Gaiser, and his accomplices; the former mayor of Vladivostok, Igor Pushkarev; the Deputy Director of the Federal Service for Financial Markets of Russia, Oleg Korshunov; former Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Dagestan Kubasai Kubasayev; former Provisional Chairman of the Dagestan Republican Government Abdusamad Gamidov and his deputy Rayudin Yusufov.

The investigation of probes was completed in respect of the former Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Moscow Region Alexey Kuznetsov, extradited from France; officials of the Volgo-Balt administration; the Head of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Spetsstroyservis under Spetsstroy of Russia Andrey Yartsev; the Director of the Department for Development of the Russian Emergencies Ministry Beslan Gogokhiya; Vladimir Privalov, former Deputy Head of the Nizhny Novgorod city administration; Vyacheslav Gorbachev, Head of the secretariat of the Sakhalin Oblast Governor; Alexander Kuznetsov, former Deputy Governor of the Pskov Oblast; Alexander Safonov, Head of the «Zelenaya Dolina» Sanatorium of the Federal Bailiffs Service; Nikolay Novokreshchenov, Deputy Chairman of the Irkutsk Oblast Court, and other persons.

The position of the leadership of the agency regarding violations of the law by the employees of the Investigative Committee is fundamental. The Investigative Committee quickly and firmly reacts to every fact of corruption, especially when it comes to the integrity of its members. An employee who has committed a crime shall be held criminally liable in accordance with the applicable law, regardless of his rank and position. This year, probes against 27 employees of the department were sent to court.

The issue of compensation for damages is one of the priorities in corruption probes for the agency. In cooperation with colleagues from the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Prosecutor’s Office, Russian Audit Chamber, the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring and other state bodies, the damage from corruption probes was compensated by 2.47 billion rubles. And to ensure compensation for the damage caused, the property of the accused was arrested for 12.9 billion rubles. In the first nine months of 2019, the instructions were presented in 7,000 probes involving corruption offences to eliminate the causes and conditions that contributed to their commission.

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation is a member of working groups on the implementation of a number of international anti-corruption conventions, including the UN Convention Against Corruption, the EU Convention on Legal Responsibility for Corruption, the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. This year, 109 requests for corruption-related probes were sent to foreign competent authorities. At the same time, the Investigative Committee received 105 requests from foreign colleagues in probes about crimes of this category.

The Investigative Committee of Russia, together with other government agencies, will continue its ongoing work on the detection and investigation of corruption crimes, compensation for damage caused, and prevention of illegal acts.

Official spokesperson for the Investigative Committee of Russia S. Petrenko